eatstoomuchjam

If you can't tell the difference in a camera with about 14 stops of dynamic range at SNR=1 and a camera with 12.1 stops of dynamic range at SNR=1 - or you can't see the difference in 28ms of rolling shutter vs 9ms of rolling shutter when the camera moves, then you probably shouldn't be dispensing camera advice to anybody, ever. It's not to say that a camera with only 11 stops of DR and 30ms rolling shutter is unable to produce a nice-looking image. I was thrilled with my 5D Mark II at the time and compared with modern cameras, it had terrible DR and RS. Especially with ML, you could shoot with that camera today and come up with something that looks better than half of what I see entered in local film contests. Similar things could be said of the GH2 or GH5. However, the question asked by the OP isn't "what low-budget camera can I buy and find ways to work around its limitations to get the results that I want?" Also, some of the nicer options suggested (including the C70 that I was just talking about) are already pretty light and remove the need to buy a decent set of ND's.

In more positive terms, speaking for myself, I just sent off a bunch of stuff (older drones, my Sigma fp and fp-l) for trade-in and I'm planning to get a C70 back. It will probably spent most of its life with the Canon-branded speed booster screwed in and with EF glass (which I have a lot of). I'm not saying it's the dream camera for the OP, but since one of the original cameras being considered was the C300 Mark III (same sensor, I think), I'll bring it up. My use case is a bit different, though - I tend to work on low-ish budget short film stuff where we frequently have fairly minimal time to shoot since paying for the location eats up 70% of the budget (if there is a budget at all). My reasoning: - Broadest dynamic range of any camera < $10k (at least where I can find good tests published online - it's possible that some of the 8K RED's are better, but cined (and similar sites) never tested them with Xyla 21) (also note that the Sony A7 IV comes close (!)) - Built-in ND filter (not vari-nd like the Canon mount adapter) - Will autofocus very well with my EF lenses when I want it to, eye detect seems reliable for close-ups of actors who don't hold still enough to stay in focus at f/2 (and tracking by hand tends to look like a mess) - On multi-camera shoots, the colors will match nicely enough with my R5 - Speed booster bolts to the camera so things won't get too wobbly with FF EF glass, even with a focus motor (like when using my Canon CN-E set or my SLR Magic APO Microprimes) - Decent RS (15ms or so) - 4K is enough for anything I do (and a lot of it gets delivered in 2K) - more is nice for cropping in post, but I can switch to the R5 for stuff where that is expected (at the loss of a lot of dynamic range 😢 ) - Shoots raw - Batteries last a long time - Inexpensive v90 SD card media (and dual-slots to mitigate risk of media failure) - mini-XLR inputs (and I'm told decent enough preamps) for shoots without a dedicated sound person Bummers: - No built in wifi director's screen on iPad (Z Cam and Komodo are both great for this) (I'm gonna try the Hollyland Mars M1 so that I won't need to stick an extra transmitter box on my monitor) - No small first-party EVF that is powered from the camera (at least none that I can find!) - 6K would be nice for reframing in post - Only recording options are raw and H.264 - would be nice to have ProRes (or H.265, though maybe it has that and I missed it) - Inexpensive v90 SD cards max out at 256GB, I think, unless that's changed recently - if so, I expect that >256GB lose the "inexpensive" qualifier - It was announced in November of 2020 so there's a nagging voice in my mind that Canon will release an updated model that fixes all of the bummers about 3 days after mine arrives

Cool story, but nobody's asking you your opinion of how they spend their money. If the OP has more than $4k in their pocket and wants to buy the best camera for what they're doing, that's their choice. They don't need some toxic internet person yelling at them about other ways they could spend the money. Not everybody bases their spending decisions on purely utilitarian criteria. Keep in mind that I'm not saying I'm a Roger Deakins or a Hoyte von Hoytema (and not even close), and it's likely that the OP isn't either, but please do go lecture either one of them on how dumb they are to shoot with multiple $100k Arri kits and $50k Venice setups. Anyway, there are also "literally millions" of other ways that you could spend your time, other than criticizing other people's hobby budgets. Maybe you should find some of them.

Announced - as implied by the video, it's more of a traditional GoPro form factor. Comes in Ace Pro (1/1.3" sensor 8K Leica lens) and Ace (1/2" sensor 6K non-Leica lens) variants. The Pro hoots up to 8k24 in 16:9 or 2.35:1 - in 4k mode, supports "clarity" which is basically the insta360 implementation of Sony's clear image zoom. Frame rates in 4K mode and below are ho-hum (4kp120 and 1080p240 supported). Open gate is limited to 4K. It also has a "pure video" mode which does some sort of ML-based denoising early in the pipeline to allow better stabilization/footage at night. In fact, it has a bunch of ML features (all branded as "AI"). The Pro has USB-PD charging and a slightly smaller battery which they say will take it to 80% in only about 20 minutes. The non-pro has only standard 5V USB charging and is likely much slower. If the rest is like previous Insta360 cameras, their software will be a lot of the draw - it'll be interesting to see how good their software is at detecting the interesting moments in hours of video. From the One R and my 360 cameras, I think Insta360 Studio is the best action camera software around. https://www.insta360.com/product/insta360-ace-pro

The image of the camera post-collision doesn't look modular - at least not like their current stuff. Among other things, it lacks the bottom battery and any sort of seam in-between the brain and the lens (plus it has a door, probably for the charger, in more of a GoPro-type location)

With that description, basically every camera on the list will be good enough. Go for whatever has the best DR (and maybe has some option for internal ND or ND-on-adapter/mount like Canon or Z Cam) and get nice glass.

No. I don't have any of those cameras to check it, but if their RS is <5ms, I already covered that in my first post. If they're <10ms, it's probably not too objectionable or noticeable without looking for it. However, if they have 20ms or more of RS, anybody who has one can easily show it by pointing the camera at a train from 3 meters away and nearly any viewer will notice the slant. Another thing that Andrew alluded to in the post was lightning - I'd expand that to strobes and some flicker boxes (or flicker effects on modern LED fixtures). In those cases, some tearing is visible with most RS - people are trained enough (from years of slow RS cameras) that they don't care a lot when half the screen is bright for a frame, but it does look better when the momentary light illuminates everything.

I have the fp and the fp-l and based on the given description, it's definitely not what he wants (I'll also probably be selling one or both of mine soon-ish). 🙂

GS is useful for more than whip pans. I'm not sure why people always jump to that. (And to avoid nitpicking, I am fully aware that for most of the stuff, really low RS (<5ms) is functionally as good as GS) - Shooting handheld in general unless you're as steady as a tripod (with 20+ms of RS, the jello is almost always noticeable) - Shooting fast-moving subjects, especially from the side (trains, cars, etc) - Mounting the camera to a car (improved with gimbal for RS, but still noticeable) Not how you shoot? Cool, but that doesn't mean it's not how others shoot.

Still photos are amazing, but if that's your only use case, get the 100S. I also have the original GFX 100 and while there are benefits to the new camera, they're almost certainly not worth the price difference between the 100S used and the 100II brand new. Since I got my II, I'd been itching to try it on a short film. The director I've been working with lately signed up for the Four Points 48HFF thing last weekend so I decided to give it a shot. For fast turnaround, the editor and I agreed that I'd just shoot the 5.8K scope mode / Eterna profile in ProRes 422. It looked great. I used autofocus on about 90% of the shots with eye detection. Especially on the close-ups with the 110/2, it did a lot better job of pulling focus than I would have (there wasn't much time to rehearse moves with the talent). It was a nice reminder that not everything has to be shot in log or raw. We also tried using the native C2C integration to send proxies directly to the editor, but the wireless hotspot that I brought with me was WAY too slow. Setting it up was easy, though, and the bits that did work felt really cool. Just gotta' try it next time in a place with faster wifi. The director also brought in an AC without letting me know in advance. I came set for light/fast and had no need for an AC. I handed him my EOS R5 that I almost always bring to shoots as a backup and for slow motion (overcrank to 120p comes in useful sometimes). He was promoted from AC to 2nd Unit DP. I apologized to the editor that aside from my Fuji footage, he'd be getting some 8k raw from the Canon. He said it wasn't too hard to match 'em up (though if I'd known I'd have brought my older GFX 100 for him to use so that the footage would match better). Anyway. As others have mentioned, it's not a perfect camera, but it is extremely usable and it was a real pleasure to use it all weekend. At almost no point did I feel that the camera was getting in my way. It's probably not going to be my "a" camera on projects that can be planned better in advance, but I'll definitely use it again for quick turnaround stuff.

Definitely not the first "dual lens" action camera - the Insta360 One R with the 360 module would technically have "dual lenses" and I wouldn't doubt that there are others that I am not thinking of. But otherwise, good luck with your spam!

Given some of the cameras that you considered, you might also want to look at the Panasonic S5II or S5IIx. Use them with Video Assist 12G and you'll have really nice braw. FWIW, I've been a Z Cam user for some years and I've owned a number of their cameras (and sold some). They've been rock solid and if you're in the US, they have vaguely decent local service through a partner. Also able to do braw with Video Assist 12G - and good enough to be used on the new Mission Impossible series (obviously not as the "a" camera). Really, basically every camera that you listed is decent/fine and is going to be more than enough for whatever nature documentary stuff you want to shoot. If you want wildlife, you might also take a stronger look at the Canon C70. It has bizarrely good DR and S35 will give all your lenses a little extra reach. There really aren't any/many "wrong" choices in the cameras you're considering or have considered. At some point, you should rent some top contenders or go to like a B&H or similar and put hands on them. Then just choose one and go shoot. 🙂

I think I saw that they're 14-bit raw files and the camera has an option to pre-buffer about 1 second of them. Depending on how long it can roll after that, I could see using it for high-quality internal raw video (without sound, but some cameras already don't bother recording it when overcranking). Even if it's only for a second or two, that's enough for some inserts/effects shots. Since it can also be toggled on mid-shooting, I could see a sports photog assigning it to a button and toggling it at an important moment. If they can pull off GS with better DR than the Komodo or the ZCam E2-S6G, the camera could be a real winner. If it's not better than Komodo, I'd expect people to go buy a used Komodo for $4-5k and enjoy internal raw, anamorphic modes, and not having to explain their camera choice to clients. I was going to get a Komodo until another user sold me a barely-used E2-S6G for half off the new price. Also, the upcoming E2-M5G could be pretty interesting too - apparently it's both GS and DGS. Still waiting for some to get out in the field and see some test chart results. Anyway, it's cool to have a lot of "affordable" GS sensors these days. It'll be nice when one has enough DR to be used as my A camera - as it is, my S6G gets some use as a B camera and specifically for shots where RS jello is offensive (still need to rig it up to my front bumper to see how it looks when I drive down a bumpy dirt road - footage from the FP is absoutely unusable when doing that)

When I decided to ditch Sony for good - and when I decided to ditch Micro 4/3, I was bummed at all of the system lenses that I had and sold for not enough money so I've decided that for now, for the most part, I'll just get EF lenses and adapt - the Canon adapter for the R5 autofocuses about as well as I need and I also get the bonus of having a built-in ND filter tray so I don't need to bring other ND's with me. The only exceptions will be lenses that are totally unique to a system (800mm f/11!), lenses that have some truly major improvement for a given system (the RF 70-200 f/4L is shockingly tiny and still pretty good), and GFX lenses (some EF lenses work fine on GFX, some don't - plus every GF lens I've used (except the 80/1.7) is freakin' incredible). Anyway. This strategy makes jumping systems easy once the vendor gets complacent. I moved to Sony mirrorless from Canon years ago because EF bodies stagnated and they kept releasing new cameras that were the same as the last one, but with only one or two spec bumps where Sony was going crazy with improvements - not to mention the first A7s was mindblowing for low light on a consumer camera. Then... Sony started releasing a bunch of ho-hum updates... and Canon suddenly had the R5 which, aside from early overheating shenanigans, is incredible... by mostly having lenses that work with every camera, I won't get stuck to a system where the vendor decides to stop innovating because it's hard to move away with thousands invested in lenses. Anyway. EF lenses are often not the greatest, but also are often good enough for anything I need. I strongly suggest the strategy to everybody! (Also, adapt all manual focus lenses to Leica M mount and you'll only ever need Leica M adapters for your cameras)

Seconding the praise for the opening sequence!

Yeah, that's looking really good on Kai's video - at least in terms of tracking. I didn't notice any pulsing, but on the other hand, nearly every clip/edit of that part of the video was only about 2 seconds long and with a lot of movement. The pulsing is easiest to see when the subject is sitting mostly still. In any case, it's a bit surprising that it works at all, given that Sigma mention at least 3 times on the product page for the MC-21 that CAF isn't supported. https://www.sigma-global.com/en/accessories/mc-21/#main-feature They also mention that lens data for supported lenses is pre-loaded in the adapter which might mean that PDAF "just works" for them (though the supported lens list is all Sigma lenses) - I'm definitely no expert in PDAF implementation, but I know that with my Steelsring, it only supported a few lenses for PDAF in the first release supporting it and then a subsequent release supported more and they made some comment about having to profile the lenses. I didn't care enough to learn more than "apparently some lens information is needed for PDAF to work right." 🙂 I also just learned that Sigma released new firmware for the MC-21 about 2 weeks ago after not having released new firmware since June of 2020. Guess I have a project for this weekend...

I saw some of what looked (to me) like pulsing, but as I said, it seemed pretty consistent with their other more recent DFD cameras - and that's not a bad thing. DFD on their more recent cameras got dangerously close to usable (from what I've seen). You're right that it's also worse/more noticeable with an f/1.4 lens. It'll be interesting for sure to see I'm wrong and the MC-21 actually supports PDAF in some way (as far as I can tell, it does not support it on my Sigma FP-L, but the FP-L is also one of the quirkiest cameras I've ever owned). Anyway, having PDAF on a popular L mount camera that's probably gonna sell a lot is likely to inspire one of the adapter makers to make it work with EF mount lenses. 🙂 As far as CC being an anti-vax/conspiracy weirdo, I've always assumed that was part of the joke. I'd be really bummed if it turns out that's serious... Humor is subjective, of course. I'm not gonna bother arguing beyond that. 🙂 I'm still subscribed to Kai, but a lot of his stuff hasn't been doing it for me lately so I end up skipping a lot - and given that like 4 of my other subs already had up long-form reviews of the camera (which were largely redundant after I watched the first one!), I didn't bother. I'll go check out the AF section after writing this comment, though!

It's a comedy channel where the host does wildlife photography which almost entirely consists of the squirrels in his neighborhood and where he renamed "bokeh" to "toneh" to make fun of Mr. Northrup going too far with shallow DOF. If you're upset that he goes light on the technical details and doesn't produce Roger Deakins-level cinematography, I think you've missed the point. (And I definitely enjoyed Kasey's video as a standout in a sea of people reading spec sheets and basically shooting the exact same video as every other channel who got invited to Japan)

Keep in mind that those same YouTubers will keep saying over and over again how they aren't being paid for the review... but also that they all know that if they don't say mostly nice things about the camera, they won't get free flights/hotels in Japan, a loaner camera + $20k in loaner lenses, or have a camera to make a video before launch day the next time. The reviews are biased and are part of the Panasonic sales strategy. Wait until real users and smaller channels start receiving the camera. Right now, it's all part of a hype machine to drive preorders. Panasonic have a long history of delivering excellent hybrid cameras and there's no reason to think that this one will be any different, but NEVER trust launch day YouTube reviews for any camera.

Watching the microwave over his shoulder after he put on the 24/1.4L, it sure looked a bit like it was pulsing to me, similar to what I'd expect from their previous cameras with DFD. It's not a surprise since (as far as I know), the MC-21 doesn't advertise supporting PDAF with Canon lenses and I'd be shocked if it did. I'd be less shocked if it supported it with Sigma EF lenses. I seem to recall that the MC-11 supported PDAF with Sigma lenses on Sony E, but I ditched all of my Sony stuff a while ago. It's not to say it's really bad - DFD has worked pretty well on their last generation or two of camera, but "slightly better DFD" is far from a compelling reason to go S5II if you use EF lenses. At that point, I'd just find a used S5 for $1k or so. With that said, some folks like Steelsring and Fringer have lenses that support PDAF with Canon lenses on Fuji bodies - presumably whatever profiling they had to do there would be fairly easily translated to L mount, assuming that they can produce electronic L mount adapters without getting sued. Once that's done, I'll be very strongly considering selling one or two of my existing cameras and switching over to the S5 IIx (maybe the timing will work out since I think the x doesn't ship until May or so). 🙂

Back to the original topic, I'm a huge fan of the Dark Power Labs stuff. I've been using the Sabrents that PC recommends in mine. One thing that he doesn't mention (should you go that route) is that you need to peel off the heatsink sticker on it - the enclosure uses a thermal pad to attach to the SSD so it isn't needed anyway. With the sticker attached, the enclosure is too tight. Do they get hot? YES. When recording, it hasn't been too bad for me. When dumping a full disk? The enclosure gets uncomfortably hot. That's going to happen with just about any extremely small/fast SSD during heavy I/O. Anyway, I use the smaller enclosure attached to the EVF on my FP-L (no cage) and I use the DPL cage with the longer SSD enclosure attached on the bottom with my FP. Either way, it's a pretty slick setup. One of the things I like is that when I'm just shooting photos or don't need 12-bit, I can just unscrew the holder and throw it in my pocket.

I saw it - for me, it'll come down to how big it is and how it interfaces to the battery slot. For some stuff, DPL does internal wiring and for other stuff, it's done with a super thin ribbon cable. I don't trust myself not to break the latter. It's rare that I need to do a single long shot so I just have like 7 or 8 BLC12 type batteries - it's easy enough to put a couple in my pockets and swap as they're dying. The NP-F 550's I have are around 2500 mAh and the BLC12 is around 1200 mAh. So if the handle makes things a lot bulkier than the Smallrig wooden handgrips that I use now, I'd be inclined to just keep putting a couple of BLC 12's in my pocket. Anyway, it'll probably be a decent option for anybody who needs to hit record and let the camera go for more than 40 minutes or so. 🙂

Yup - that's mostly true. The FOV is narrower by default with EIS enabled. It doesn't bug me at all with action cameras because the lenses are usually wider than I want anyway. One thing that is a bit iffy, though, is that you're saying that the GoPro applies a digital zoom in order to get to 3840x2160. I have no insight to how GoPro actually do their EIS, but the resolution of the Hero 9 is 20 megapixels and the Hero 10 is 23. Both cameras can shoot 5K video. So in 4K mode with stabilization applied, it could be done by moving to a 1:1 pixel readout in a window and moving that window around the sensor. That wouldn't be a digital zoom - it'd be more like "clear image zoom" on a Sony. No need to upscale the footage. The bigger objection that I tend to have with EIS is that it sometimes interacts really weirdly with rolling shutter/jello. When on a sustained bumpy road (like something that's really washboarded) with my car-mounted stuff, sometimes the footage just looks like puke - it gets even worse once the sun starts to go down since the action camera starts to move closer to a 360 shutter to cope with the lack of light. Anyway, for city streets/sidewalks which aren't so bumpy, as long as the tires aren't made of hard plastic, I'd expect that they'd absorb enough of the vibration from sidewalk/asphalt texture that the footage will be in hyperlapse/uncanny valley too smooth mode (this is where I wish that more options were provided for less aggressive stabilization).

I have both an fp and an fp-l. With the fp, I use the DPL mini-cage with an SSD holder on the bottom and their little L bracket on the side of the camera instead of a cable. Works great, looks cool, and keeps things small/unobtrusive. I use a little kind of cruddy Portkeys screen, chosen because it's about the size of a smartphone and works generally acceptably. For some upcoming guerrilla short film stuff, I plan to just use it with a small Platypod (or similar) in a coffee shop while sitting at a table near the talent. With the fp-l, I didn't have the EVF until just recently so I used their side cage. That works great because I can just keep it in a pocket. With just the Smallrig wooden grip on the side and Leica M lenses, I have great photo quality in a tiny camera. When I wanna shoot video, I can just screw on an ND filter and the DPL cage. Though I finally broke down and bought the EVF since it's so annoying to shoot with just the rear LCD (I'm not doing the flippy screen mod) - so I have the EVF SSD holder from DPL on its way. Hopefully it isn't too obtrusive or it's as easy to attach/detach as the other one. I'm planning to do a YT video on it soon, maybe this weekend if it shows up in time. I feel like the DPL stuff finally fulfills the promise of the FP being a tiny little modular camera that record excellent 12-bit footage. When I was using the Smallrig cage and a T5, the camera seemed bigger (and definitely more awkward) than my R5. And yeah, the little Sabrent drive won't fit in most brackets - I was planning to 3d print one that would make it a bit less awkward to use before I bought the DPL stuff. 🙂

This is basically just begging for a fairly modern GoPro or Insta360. Lately, I've been using a GoPro mounted to my bumper and an Insta360 One R (Leica lens mod) on a rigid mount on my roof rack. I drive a Wrangler which is definitely not known for a smooth ride - when I take it on really gnarly backroad trails, it's smooth to the point where it can be a bit disappointing (the footage no longer reflects just how bumpy the trail was). I'd try a Hero 9 (or 10) and/or an Insta360 One R with a simple pole mount before spending too much time rigging up a crazy Z Axis or gimbal for your bigger camera.